A shocking turn of events at Tianchi Volcano! The Kunlun team is in danger.

Time rewound a few hours.

Changbai Mountains, Heaven Lake Volcano.

This is one of Great Xia’s most famous tourist destinations.

Heaven Lake at the mountain peak, like a flawless sapphire, was embedded between the peaks, appearing tranquil and sacred.

However, at this moment, this tranquility was broken by a series of dull roars.

Not far from the edge of Heaven Lake, within a strictly cordoned-off area, dozens of large engineering machines were operating at high speed.

They did not touch the waters of Heaven Lake, but instead drilled a bottomless vertical opening directly into the hard volcanic rock nearby.

Beside the opening, twenty soldiers in black combat suits stood silently.

Their postures were straight as pines, and their aura was as steady as mountains; they were members of the Kunlun Squad!

Now, this extraordinary unit, composed of two hundred elite soldiers, was undoubtedly the strongest fighting force in the Great Xia military.

After several months of Cultivating, the Realm of every member had steadily entered the Body Tempering Realm Triple Layer and above.

And the captain leading them, Captain Chen Gang, had even reached the Body Tempering Fifth Layer, possessing a strength of up to 1,500 jin, making him the strongest in the current military!

This time, they were specifically dispatched here to carry out a arduous exploration mission.

According to previous surveys, the Changbai Mountain Heaven Lake Volcano was the richest source of “Dragon Crystal” Ore veins within Great Xia.

But at the same time, it was also the most difficult place to mine, with the harshest environment.

Therefore, in order to formulate a detailed mining plan for the future, the Four Elders finally decided to:

Dispatch the strongest members of the Kunlun Squad, led personally by Captain Captain Chen Gang, who would select nineteen elites to go deep into the volcano for on-site exploration.

Only they could complete this task, which was almost impossible for ordinary people!

...“The passage inside is stable!”

“Attention all!”

“Begin donning equipment!”

As Captain Chen Gang gave the order, all the team members immediately sprang into action.

They retrieved sets of silver-white protective gear, highly futuristic in design, from the all-terrain vehicles nearby.

This equipment was the latest masterpiece from the Great Xia Academy of Sciences, integrating multiple functions such as heat insulation, anti-poison, filtration, and oxygen supply, with extremely superior performance.

However, it had a fatal flaw.

It was too heavy!

To ensure absolute protection in extreme environments, the entire set of equipment weighed over 150 jin!

This weight, let alone for ordinary people, even for the world’s top strongmen, would make it impossible to move normally while wearing it.

But for the members of the Kunlun Squad, this amount of weight was nothing at all.

Their weakest member now possessed immense strength exceeding 700 jin.

Wearing 150 jin of equipment was almost no different from wearing an ordinary cotton overcoat, not affecting their movement in the slightest.

Soon, twenty fully armed “astronauts” were ready, standing before the deep opening.

“Brothers, you all understand the importance of this mission!”

“We are going down to scout the way for tens of thousands of brothers who will follow!”

“For the future of Great Xia, for the grand vision of Cultivating Immortality for All (Cultivating the Immortals for All)! This journey, we must win, not lose!”

Captain Chen Gang emphasized the importance of the mission one last time to all team members through the built-in communicator.

“Understood!”

The nineteen team members roared in unison, their voices shaking the clouds.

Without further ado, Captain Chen Gang was the first to walk onto the specialized lift platform, with the team members following closely behind him.

With the hum of machinery, the platform slowly descended, and the twenty figures quickly disappeared into the dark opening.

The descent was long and tedious.

A depth of nearly a thousand meters made them feel as if they were Transmigrating into the entrance of Hell.

As they went deeper, the temperature of the surrounding rock walls began to rise sharply, and through the communicator, they could even hear the faint cracking sounds of rocks due to the high temperature.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of descent, the lift platform reached the bottom.

As they stepped off the platform and onto the solid ground, the scene before them made everyone hold their breath.

They had entered an incredibly vast underground lava cave.

Countless magnificent stalactites hung from the cave ceiling, shimmering with a rather peculiar luster.

And directly in front of them, a hundred-meter-wide river of lava flowed slowly, emitting terrifying high temperatures capable of melting steel.

The scorching lava illuminated the entire cave in a fiery red, and the air was filled with a strong smell of sulfur.

“How spectacular...”

“Is this the inside of a volcano?”

Gazing at this scene, a team member couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

“Everyone, pay attention!” Captain Chen Gang immediately reminded, “This is not a tourist attraction, it’s incredibly dangerous! Immediately follow the predetermined route and search for the Ore vein!”

“Yes!”

Everyone immediately composed themselves, formed a combat formation, and began exploring deeper into the cave along a naturally formed small rocky path beside the lava river.

Fortunately, their luck was good.

After advancing less than two or three kilometers, their special detector emitted urgent “beep beep” sounds.

“Captain! Found it!”

The team member operating the instrument excitedly shouted, “There’s a strong ‘Dragon Crystal’ energy reaction in the rock wall to our left!”

Upon hearing this, everyone showed expressions of joy.

They quickly walked to that section of the rock wall, only to see many reddish crystals embedded in it, glowing with a gentle light under the reflection of the lava.

“Good! It really is Dragon Crystal!”

“Get to work!”

“Collect samples!”

At Captain Chen Gang’s command, the team members immediately took out their specialized alloy picks from their backs.

Bang!

A team member swung his arm in a full circle, striking down with all his might.

The volcanic rock, which would be indestructible for ordinary people, was as fragile as tofu under this blow, which contained nearly a thousand jin of immense strength, and large chunks of rock were easily smashed off.

Soon, the first fist-sized, entirely reddish “Dragon Crystal” raw Ore was successfully mined.

“Success!”

“Hahaha! That was too easy!”

The team members cheered.

With their current strength, mining these Ores was effortless.

A joyful atmosphere spread through the team.

They continued to throw themselves into the enthusiastic mining work, and one raw Dragon Crystal Ore after another was quickly collected.

However, just as they were mining with great fervor...

Rumble... a slight tremor suddenly came from deep within the cave.

Immediately following, an indescribably scorching sensation rushed over them.

“What’s going on?”

Captain Chen Gang immediately became alert, stopping his movements.

All the team members also felt the abnormality, stopping their work and gripping their alloy picks, warily looking in the direction from which the tremor came.

The flow rate of the lava river seemed to be accelerating.

And that scorching sensation grew increasingly intense, as if some huge heat source was rapidly approaching.

Rumble! Rumble!

Heavy footsteps approached from afar, each step causing the entire cave to tremble violently.

Finally, under the horrified gaze of all the team members...

An incredibly massive figure slowly emerged from around the bend of the lava river.

It was a gigantic lizard over thirty meters long!

Its entire body was covered in fiery red scales, the edges of which even burned with dark red flames.

Its four limbs were thick and powerful, and its sharp claws gleamed with a metallic luster.

On a ferocious head, two enormous, intelligent eyes stared indifferently at them, these tiny “intruders.”

“What... what the Hell is this thing?!”

“Oh my God!!!”

“How... how can there be such a big lizard on Blue Star?!”

The moment they saw this monster, everyone’s minds went blank.

They couldn’t for the life of them understand why such an unseen creature would appear inside a volcano!

This completely defied their understanding!

“Roar!”

The mysterious giant lizard’s patience seemed to be running thin; it opened its huge maw and let out a deafening roar.

A terrifying heatwave, mixed with sulfur and flames, instantly swept through the area.

“Run!!”

Captain Chen Gang was the first to react, quickly roaring with all his might to warn everyone.

He knew very well that any resistance against a monster of this level would be futile!

Even if they were Body Tempering Realm Cultivators, they were absolutely no match for the undisguised powerful aura of the monster!

At this moment, only by running for their lives did they have a chance to survive!

Hearing the captain’s furious shout, the other team members awoke from their daze and turned to flee madly back the way they came.

However, the giant lizard’s speed was far greater than they imagined.

It simply moved at a leisurely pace, yet it followed closely behind them, as if playing with a group of pathetic prey.

In despair, Captain Chen Gang discovered a narrow cave not far ahead.

“Get into that cave! Hurry!”

He shouted, and everyone immediately rushed in recklessly.

The cave was small, just enough to accommodate all twenty of them.

They stood back to back, blocking the entrance, watching the increasingly close, ferocious head, with despair written on every face.

They suddenly realized that this small cave probably couldn’t stop that terrifying monster.

Death seemed to be the only outcome.

However, what happened in the next second stunned everyone.

After the giant lizard reached the cave entrance, it merely lowered its head and coldly glanced at them with its disdainful giant eyes.

Immediately after, it actually turned around and, with heavy footsteps, left without looking back.